Singapore and Dhaka — 2 February 2018 — Sentinel Chain, a blockchain-based financial services marketplace and the world’s first platform to accept the use of livestock as collateral has announced a partnership and collaboration with CloudWell Ltd. (“CloudWell”), a fintech company headquartered in Bangladesh which facilitates instant payment services for milk supply. CloudWell, through Agent Banking Outlets at Co-Operative Society or Village Milk Collection Centre, also offers financial solutions to the dairy farmers, herdsmen, and milkmen of Bangladesh.

CloudWell will utilize the Sentinel Chain platform and technology for the tagging of livestock and livestock insurance in partnership with Green Delta Insurance Bangladesh.

Through this strategic partnership, the rural farmers will benefit from affordable and secure financial services which will be made available on the Sentinel Chain B2B marketplace.

Farmers in Bangladesh face difficulties in meeting the loan eligibility criteria as many of them have little or no previous credit history. By leveraging the transaction data on Sentinel Chain, CloudWell will be able to develop a clear picture of the individual farmer’s financial situation and credit rating. An analysis of that data will help the farmer to obtain credit.

Most lending is also based on collateral. Since livestock is not recognised as an “asset” in the financial economy, the farmers face difficulties in securing a loan due to the lack of asset ownership.

Currently, insurance companies are not able to offer livestock insurance at competitive premiums because there is no “tamper-proof” identification system which proves the identity and ownership of the livestock.

In the Sentinel Chain ecosystem, the livestock will be tagged with a physically tamper-proof identity tag. The livestock identity data will be stored on the blockchain which is digitally-immutable. Not only will the solution prevent fraud, the time-series transaction ledger will create a storage for analysis of accurate livestock data to reduce insurance premiums — making it an affordable product the rural farmers.

Only when the livestock is insured can the financial provider accept it as a collateral for loan — allowing the farmer, for the first time to have access to affordable finance.

In Bangladesh, 83.9 percent of total households own livestock

“Sentinel Chain’s collaboration with CloudWell and Green Delta will not only unlock the high economic potential of livestock development but more importantly, the hidden economic potential of the rural farmers in Bangladesh.”Roy Lai, CEO, Sentinel Chain

In Bangladesh, 83.9 percent of total households own livestock. The density of livestock population per acre of cultivable land is 7.37 — and this has been increasing every year. The livestock population density of Bangladesh is well above the averages for many other countries of the world.

The livestock population density of Bangladesh is well above the averages for many other countries of the world.

The Government of Bangladesh has given top priority to livestock development in recent years to meet the growing demand for milk, meat and egg production, and to create employment as well as generate income for the rural poor. This strategic partnership between Sentinel Chain, CloudWell and Green Delta Insurance will empower the livestock development programmes and simultaneously benefit the rural and financially underserved community of Bangladesh.

Sentinel Chain is a blockchain-based international marketplace for cross-border financial services and the world’s first platform to accept the use of livestock as collateral. Taking a unique approach to the last mile problem of financial inclusion, the Sentinel Chain model establishes livestock provenance through the creation of livestock insurance on blockchain — the registration of livestock provenance on blockchain provides the unbanked with a new opportunity: the real possibility of accepting livestock as ‘collateral’ for loans. Sentinel Chain is a project by InfoCorp Technologies and planning its initial coin offering (ICO) in March 2018.

CloudWell is a fintech company headquartered in Bangladesh which facilitates instant payment services for milk supply. CloudWell, through Agent Banking Outlets at Co-Operative Society or Village Milk Collection Centre, also offers financial solutions to the dairy farmers, herdsmen, and milkmen of Bangladesh. Established in 2012, its leadership team members are renowned professionals in banking, FMCG and ICT ecommerce businesses of Bangladesh.

Green Delta Insurance provides a range of non-life insurance products and solutions including financial insurance products as well as specialized insurance products such as crop, and weather index based insurance products. It operates through 39 branches in Bangladesh. The company was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Dhaka, Bangladesh.